Americans United - tax exemptionhttps://au.org/tags/tax-exemption
enSign Redesign: ‘No Homo Mayor’ Church Repents (Sort Of), But It’s Too Latehttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/sign-redesign-%E2%80%98no-homo-mayor%E2%80%99-church-repents-sort-of-but-it%E2%80%99s-too-late
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Constitution says nothing about tax exemption for churches. The issue simply is not addressed. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Last month, Americans United asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a Gainesville, Fla., church that waded into partisan politics in a mayoral race.</p>
<p>Dove World Outreach Center <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2010/03/irs-should-investigate.html">erected a sign</a> on its property reading, “No Homo Mayor.” The reference is to Craig Lowe, a mayoral candidate who is gay. Terry Jones, senior pastor at the church, freely admitted to the <em>Gainesville Sun</em> that the church erected the sign in an effort to intervene in the election.</p>
<p>“We don’t feel as though the city should be represented by a homosexual,” Jones said.</p>
<p>AU’s report to the IRS made quite a splash in the local media. It was also picked up by a number of blogs.</p>
<p>All of the attention may have made officials at Dove World Outreach Center a little skittish. They have now <a href="http://citylimits.blogs.gainesville.com/10669/church-changes-no-homo-mayor-sign-to-read-no-homo/">altered the sign</a>; it reads simply “No homo.”</p>
<p>Nice try, guys, but I’m afraid it’s too late. Your church put up a sign attacking a candidate for mayor, and now you should pay the consequences. This is an open-and-shut case. The IRS should act quickly.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the issue of church politicking takes front and center today on AOL News. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, <a href="http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/debate-tax-exempt-churches-cant-endorse-candidates/19426843">squares off</a> with Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund<em> </em>(ADF).</p>
<p>Stanley makes an unusual argument. Tax exemption for churches, <a href="http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/debate-keep-the-irs-away-from-the-pulpit/19426807">he says</a>, is required by the Constitution. Therefore, Congress has no right to place conditions on it.</p>
<p>“Churches derive their tax exemption from the Constitution, and it is therefore not something the government can withdraw or condition without serious damage to the Constitution itself,” Stanley argues.</p>
<p>It would be a compelling argument – if it weren’t made up out of whole cloth.</p>
<p>The fact is, the Constitution says nothing about tax exemption for churches. The issue simply is not addressed. It’s true that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld tax exemption for houses of worship in the 1970 decision <em>Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York</em>, but the court <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&amp;vol=397&amp;invol=664">merely declared</a> that tax exemption for religious groups was not a violation of the First Amendment; it did not say that such exemptions a constitutional right.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the high court upheld tax exemption in <em>Walz</em> in part because it is extended to non-religious groups as well. They reasoned that it can’t be considered a special benefit only to religion if libraries, schools, hospitals and so on claim it as well.</p>
<p>Observed Chief Justice Warren Burger, “New York, in common with the other States, has determined that certain entities that exist in a harmonious relationship to the community at large, and that foster its ‘moral or mental improvement,’ should not be inhibited in their activities by property taxation or the hazard of loss of those properties for nonpayment of taxes. It has not singled out one particular church or religious group or even churches as such; rather, it has granted exemption to all houses of religious worship within a broad class of property owned by nonprofit, quasi-public corporations which include hospitals, libraries, playgrounds, scientific, professional, historical, and patriotic groups. The State has an affirmative policy that considers these groups as beneficial and stabilizing influences in community life and finds this classification useful, desirable, and in the public interest.”</p>
<p>More relevantly, Burger noted that groups can lose tax exemption, writing, “Qualification for tax exemption is not perpetual or immutable; some tax-exempt groups lose that status when their activities take them outside the classification and new entities can come into being and qualify for exemption.”</p>
<p>That would hardly be the case if tax exemption were a matter of constitutional right.</p>
<p>Pulpit-based politicking is a bad deal all around. It converts churches into cogs in political machines; numerous polls show that Americans don’t want this. The gang at the ADF should give up this misguided crusade.</p>
<p>As for the Dove World Outreach Center, it deserves to lose its tax-exempt status.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund-adf">Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/erik-stanley">Erik Stanley</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tax-exemption">tax exemption</a></span></div></div>Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:35:38 +0000Rob Boston2070 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/sign-redesign-%E2%80%98no-homo-mayor%E2%80%99-church-repents-sort-of-but-it%E2%80%99s-too-late#commentsBypassing Booth: Minn. Pastor Dodges IRS Investigation – For Nowhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/bypassing-booth-minn-pastor-dodges-irs-investigation-%E2%80%93-for-now
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>A couple months ago, I <a href="http://blog.au.org/2009/05/21/partisan-politicking-pugilists-debate-brings-together-opponents-and-proponents-of-church-electioneering/">blogged</a> about a lively debate I attended about politics and the pulpit.</p>
<p>It was an afternoon bringing together people from the entire political spectrum. Participants on a panel, including AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn, discussed a provision in federal tax law that prohibits tax-exempt, non-profit organizations – including religious institutions – from endorsing or opposing candidates.</p>
<p>Sitting across the room from me at the event was Pastor Gus Booth, pastor of Warroad Community Church in northern Minnesota. He had come to Washington for the luncheon, and someone pointed him out to me.</p>
<p>I was curious to see who he was because Americans United had filed two complaints against Booth and his church after he blatantly violated IRS tax law last year.</p>
<p>In May 2008, Booth <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2008/06/irs-should-inves.html">told</a> his congregation, "If you are a Christian, you cannot support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Both Hillary and Barack favor the shedding of innocent blood (abortion) and the legalization of the abomination of homosexual marriage."</p>
<p>Then, in September, Booth violated the law again as part of the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," a scheme in which the Religious Right legal group urged clergy across the country to endorse or oppose political candidates from the pulpit. The ADF promised to represent these churches if any lost their tax exemption, hoping to challenge the constitutionality of the tax provision</p>
<p>Americans United <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2008/09/au-urges-irs-to-take-action.html">turned in</a> six of the churches we learned participated in the ADF plot. Over the years, Americans United has turned in dozens of religious institutions that have also violated the law.</p>
<p>We often receive questions from the public and the media asking whether the IRS really does investigate these churches. The IRS conducts its investigations under confidentiality rules, but occasionally, something turns up in the media that clues us in. That's what has happened this week.</p>
<p>It appears that the IRS sent a <a href="http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/IRSletterClosingFile.pdf">letter</a> to Booth months ago informing him that his church was under investigation. Now, due to a procedural matter, that investigation is on hold. But the IRS also said it might proceed with the investigation once that issue is cleared up.</p>
<p>Of course, Booth is singing a different tune. He told the <a href="http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/apArticle/id/D99OD7JG0/">Associated Press</a> that the IRS backed down for fear it would lose in court if he challenged the revocation of his tax exemption.</p>
<p>I doubt it. Last year, the IRS had to halt its investigation into a church that reportedly violated the tax code because the IRS official filing the paperwork was not of a "sufficient" rank. Federal law requires that any audit of a house of worship be initiated by a high-ranking IRS official. I'm guessing the IRS is pulling back on Booth temporarily just to make sure the official who signed off on his audit is of sufficient rank.</p>
<p>Sometimes a procedural matter just gets in the way, but that doesn't mean the IRS doesn't take tax code violations seriously. It is well known that the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., <a href="http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2008/11/10/a-church-should-not-be-a-political-machine.html">lost its tax exemption</a> after it ran an ad in <em>USA Today</em> calling Bill Clinton a sinner and warned Christians against voting for him.</p>
<p>When the congregation contested the revocation in court, it lost at every level. No judge fell for the church's argument that it had "free speech" or "free exercise" right to engage in partisan activities.</p>
<p>So I find it highly unlikely that the IRS would have any reason to fear the Rev. Booth. In fact, that claim just sounds ridiculous, especially when it's Booth who risks losing the most.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/internal-revenue-service-irs">Internal Revenue Service (IRS)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/minnesota">Minnesota</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pastor-gus-booth">Pastor Gus Booth</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/politics">Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pulpit">Pulpit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tax-exemption">tax exemption</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/warroad-community-church">Warroad Community Church</a></span></div></div>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:55:36 +0000Sandhya Bathija2374 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/bypassing-booth-minn-pastor-dodges-irs-investigation-%E2%80%93-for-now#commentsTaxation Inspiration: South Carolina Officials Pass The Plate To Prosperity Preacherhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/taxation-inspiration-south-carolina-officials-pass-the-plate-to-prosperity
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>South Carolina state officials have rejected a Christian television network's tax-exempt status after discovering it brings in $39 million in profit, a Charlotte <a href="http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-112608-mw-inspiration_network.63a23b6.html">news station</a> reports.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.insp.com/">The Inspiration Network</a>, a 24-hour-a day network that preaches "prosperity gospel" to more than 54 million U.S. households via cable and satellite, will begin paying <a href="http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-061809-mw-inspiration_taxes.285a8e0.html">nearly $800,000 in property taxes</a> this October.</p>
<p>The ministry promises that if viewers choose to "obey the Holy Spirit," and donate to the network, they'll soon "drive a Mercedes," "be debt free" or even find gold on their land.</p>
<p>Though it seems unbelievable, it's clearly convincing to the many watching. In 2007, the network's revenue was more than $69 million. The ministry's 93-acre headquarters, called City of Light, was paid for with millions of dollars in donations, as well as with a $1.2 million economic development grant from the state of South Carolina for road, water and sewer construction.</p>
<p>David Cerullo, CEO of Inspiration Network, took home more than $1.5 million in 2007, his wife earned $150,000. Their children also appear on the ministry's payroll.</p>
<p>The family owns a home in Charlotte, N.C., valued at more than $1.6 million and another in house in South Carolina worth $3.1 million.</p>
<p>"It appears they've spared no expense with custom woodwork, expansive rock walls, and a boat dock," the report said.</p>
<p>WCNC interviewed a woman who committed to send $58 a month for 12 months to the ministry, hoping that if she "sowed the seed, she'd reap the harvest."</p>
<p>"Nothing he described happened," she said. She went on to say once she and her husband found themselves in even more debt, they asked the ministry to stop taking monthly payments from their bank account, to which the network said no.</p>
<p>Critics, such as Warren Smith of the watchdog group Wall Watchers, <a href="http://www.wcnc.com/6newsextra/investigators/stories/wcnc-112608-mw-inspiration_network.63a23b6.html">call the network</a> "televangelist gunslingers.</p>
<p>"I think there are some donors who are very vulnerable to that message," Smith said. "Especially in tough economic times, you'll find that there are a couple of growth industries. One is the lottery and the other is prosperity preachers."</p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) <a href="http://members.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&amp;page=NewsArticle&amp;id=9637#cs6%22">has been investigating ministries </a>similar to the Inspiration Network that preach "prosperity gospel," after he heard allegations that ministry leaders, spouses and family members were drawing huge salaries and enjoying lavish lifestyles.</p>
<p>Those allegations seem to have been confirmed, at least in this case. Groups that receive tax exemptions do so because they are giving something back to the community. It's clear that when it comes to the Inspiration Network, the primary recipients are the ministry leaders themselves.</p>
<p>South Carolina has made a smart decision, one that will mostly benefit local public schools, which receive the vast majority of income from property taxes, Lancaster County Administrator Steve Willis told <a href="http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-061809-mw-inspiration_taxes.285a8e0.html">WCNC</a>.</p>
<p>Not a bad trade off, to say the least.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/charles-grassley">Charles Grassley</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/inpiration-network">Inpiration Network</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/prosperity-gospel">prosperity gospel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/south-carolina">South Carolina</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tax-exemption">tax exemption</a></span></div></div>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:23:57 +0000Sandhya Bathija2362 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/taxation-inspiration-south-carolina-officials-pass-the-plate-to-prosperity#comments